If your payment fails

Payments fail for all sorts of ordinary reasons - expired card details, a cancelled mandate, a change of address, or not quite enough in the account on the day.

Here's what happens next. Some of it depends on your provider: automatic retries and the processing fee are both optional, and each provider decides whether to use them.

You'll hear from us

We'll email you as soon as a payment fails, and ask you to check the payment details on your account.

What it says next depends on your provider. If they use automatic retries, it names the date we'll try again. If they don't, it asks you to clear the balance yourself and we'll keep trying until you do. Once any re-attempts run out, it tells you your provider will be in touch instead.

If your provider adds a processing fee, the amount is in that email, and in the reminder we send three days before each payment is collected.

The processing fee

Some providers add a processing fee each time a subscription payment fails.

The fee is a debit against your balance with that provider, not a separate payment taken from your payment method. Nobody collects it on its own - it sits on your balance and is settled with your provider along with everything else, exactly like your subscription balance.

That's why signing in after a failed payment shows your balance has moved. You'll find the fee itemised under Charges, alongside your bookings and anything else charged to you.

When we try again

Where your provider uses automatic retries, we'll re-attempt the payment after a few days, using the payment method already on your account.

We only re-try the payment that was missed, not everything outstanding. If you're more than one month behind, the rest stays on your balance for your provider to sort out with you directly.

TIP

Updating your card or bank account before the retry date is the quickest way to clear things up.

If we still can't collect

Providers who use automatic retries set a limit on how many times we try. Once we reach it we stop, and we'll let you know your provider will be in touch to arrange payment.